The present invention pertains to holding tongs for clamping or seizing plates or plate-shaped objects which are to be inserted into or removed from a galvanizing bath.
Holding tongs of the type under consideration include two halves provided with clamping projections so that the clamping projection formed on one half of the tongs lies centrally between the two clamping projections of the other half, as seen in the direction of elongation of the tongs. Such conventional holding tongs are disadvantageous in that the tongs must grasp the plates being treated at their edges whereby the oscillating motion of the plate about the clamping place should be maintained as small as possible. If the distance between two clamping projections is designated at L the actual lever arm due to the central position of the clamping projection of the other half of tongs would be L/2. To compensate for this disadvantage a spring force on the clamping projections must be increased. This is however limited because with the high spring force there is the danger that the thin edge of the plate held by the tongs could be pressed and damaged by the centrally positioned clamping projection. If the distance L between two projections of one half of the tongs is increased the edge of the plate reserved for holding should be accordingly greater. The edge area of the plate to be galvanized is however selected so that the effective surface of the plate to be galvanized should be reduced. The known arrangement has been disclosed in DE-GM No. 8422297.